Messages - McGrupp

In moderation and not every day drugs can be pretty fun (not magikal, though)

The big negative for me with drugs and the one that doesn't seem to get talked about that much is that it's easy to rely on them when you're bored or upset or just to deal with what you're doing at the time. But here's the thing, do that long enough and all the time you would have spent, painting, writing, going outside, creating, thinking, and making new friends was spent on drugs.

Sure it was all a good time but then you wake up and realize that years have passed. You didn't do the things you were really interested in. You're an artist that never made art. You're a writer that never wrote. You go to a party and realize you have nothing to talk about because all you've done is drugs for weeks. And the older you get the more pronounced this gap with the rest of the world becomes.

Alternate states of consciousness can be a lot of fun but if you're fucked up all the time it's not really an altered state, it's just a state.

Several weeks ago I picked up some sidewalk chalk on a whim. My housemates laughed at me at first but by the end of the first night we had all played around with it on the sidewalk. Since then we've bought more chalk and every time it rains we get a blank canvas to work with and make better drawings. This is from the last batch.

It's been an awesome way to meet the neighbors and it's about a block down from where people do yarnbombs. Reason number 743 to love downtown Ypsi.

This last picture doesn't have anything to do with chalk. I just wanted to point out that my entire town lives in the shadow of a giant phallus. Reason number 259 to love downtown Ypsi.

This sucks. I was really hoping this would go through after the council called WalMart out after they threatened to leave the city.

My favorite part is that this bill only affects those businesses that make over a billion dollars a year. I mean c'mon, multi-billion dollar businesses are just constantly being taken advantage of. Glad the Mayor stood up for the little guy.

That's a really cool video. That must have taken a lot of planning to make all the pieces fit.

I think I kinda get how this can rub people the wrong way, but I also think it's as versatile as any other art form. Also a person livening up their own neighborhood and haunts is probably different than someone going to a place they deem 'decrepit' and adding their stuff to it. But I still think its all pretty cool. It can be silly. It can make a statement. It can jar people. It can make my walk to the bus stop a little brighter.

This rabbit is from Italy and is so large that it's bellybutton is a person. Not technically a yarn bomb but still neat.

Those links are really interesting. It didn't even occur to me that people would have a reaction other than 'oh cool. neat!'

I get the frustration about how it is seen as more legitimate or 'safe' than other forms of street art but I really can't get behind the rich white art student gentrification angle. Not that middle class art students aren't probably behind a lot of it but I think its odd that the bloggers are projecting the need to feel 'subversive' on yarn bombers. Is it so hard to imagine that someone did it because they thought it would be fun and neat?

It seems ironic that one of those posts calls them hipsters for doing an art form they deem not 'cool or edgy' enough.

Does the yarn ever get moldy and gross? What does a yarnbomb look like years later?

when people speak out against yarnbombing, what are their arguments?

I just moved to Ypsi in July and the ones I've seen have been out in the elements since at least then. I don't know if they use special yarn but they still look really nice and don't seem to smell. Ypsi is pretty cool about it too. The city doesn't take them down even if its on a telephone pole or parking meter.

So, I noticed trees, telephone poles, parking meters, and half of a bridge covered in yarn in my town. I also noticed that new ones kept showing up. I thought it was awesome and after investigating I found out that apparently 'Yarn Bombing' is a worldwide thing. This may be old news but I had never heard of it and it seems really awesome.

Great post, Paes. I totally identify with your journey. I found PD.Com because I typed 'what the hell are my beliefs' into google and kept clicking randomly until somehow I got here. It's been odd, but definitely a positive experience.

Also Discordia is useful for propping up uneven tables and getting out tough grease stains.

The conversation here is almost exactly like the conversation in my head when I was trying to figure out the problem. Still makes my head hurt.

My understanding is that the name Florida is meant to be misleading. It could be replaced with Susan, or anything. I think it's just important that we know some type of specific information about one of the girls, I think.